Tickle
by saichick-Anna-Erishkigal
Summary: Preview:  Ch.1 - Pepper finds herself fantasizing about Tony's goatee.  Ch.2 - Tony's viewpoint.  Between IM1 and IM2.  Fluffy Pepperony.
1. Chapter 1

Story: Tickle  
Author: saichick  
Challenge: Pepperony 100  
Theme: 017 Rough  
Rating: PG-13

Timeline: between IM1 and IM2

Preview: _Pepper finds herself fantasizing about Tony's goatee. A fluffy Pepperony one-shot._

It was the slight scratchiness against her ear that alerted her to the fact Tony was looking over her shoulder at her laptop. Instinctively, she reached up to brush away the irritant and ended up running her hand along his cheek and down his chin like a lovers caress. She momentarily paused, frozen in place. Little jolts of electricity shot through her body as her hand registered the contrast between his soft cheek and the short, light, prickly hairs of his goatee.

"Oh," she exclaimed, pulling away her hand. "Tony, I didn't realize you were there!"

"Mmmm…" he murmured beside her ear. "Just looking at those figures you pulled up. Didn't mean to startle you."

The gentle tickle of his beard against her ear as his earthy baritone rumbled his words was distracting. She paused, waiting for him to finish looking and go back to whatever it was he had been doing, but he did not move.

"Don't mind me," he murmured, his goatee pleasantly itching against her ear in synch with the sound of his voice. "Just keep on doing what you were doing."

"Y-yes, Mr. Stark," she replied, trying to regain her composure so he wouldn't know his proximity was doing strange things to her internal defenses. A traitorous flush rose up and spread throughout her body and cheeks. She pulled up the next set of data and pretended to be focused on her work.

"Are these figures from last quarter, or this quarter?" he asked, peering intently at the screen from his perch behind her.

"This quarter, I think," Pepper practically stammered as the subtle scent of his after shave wafted over to her nostrils and made her gasp. Every time he spoke, the warm timber of his voice and gentle tickle of his rough goatee sent pleasant little thrills throughout her entire body. His warm breath moved against the side of her neck as he stood there, silently, studying the spreadsheets on her screen.

"Would you like me to, um, print these out for you?" she asked, the slight quiver in her voice betraying her attempts to maintain her professional demeanor.

"No, that's okay," he said, not moving. His goatee just barely caressed her ear as he spoke, just enough that the sensation had her totally distracted. "No need to kill any forests. Just pull them up and I'll look them over with you."

"Y-yes, Mr. Stark," she stammered, her heart racing. "What data do you want to look at next?" My god? Didn't he realize what he was doing to her?

"Compare the profit margins on the Intellicrops division between this quarter and the same quarter last year," he quietly requested, still next to her ear. "I want to see how eliminating the round-up gene from the corn seed has affected profits."

As he spoke, he leaned forward just a little to hit one of the function buttons on her computer with one hand. It was a good thing she was sitting down, Pepper thought, as the light scratchiness of his goatee brushing her cheek as he performed the slight movement forward and then back made her weak in the knees. He placed one hand on her shoulder for balance as he straightened back up and his hand remained there, radiating warmth down to her collarbone. Despite her best effort to concentrate, Pepper found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss her handsome boss and feel the roughness of his goatee against her mouth, her cheeks, her lips.

"Now can you do the same thing for the medical research division?" he murmured, his rough goatee just barely rubbing against her delicate earlobe like a kitten nibbling on the teat of its mother cat.

As Pepper pulled up the requested data, she found her thoughts migrating to a markedly inappropriate direction. What would it feel like to feel the roughness of his beard press against her neck as he made love to her? As he kissed down her throat down to her breasts. Down her abdomen? Down to…..

She jumped as he reached diagonally across her to grab a pencil she had sitting on the table and his goatee brushed against the bottom of her jaw bone and his curly, dark hair caressed her cheekbone. She inhaled the subtle pheromones of … male … something earthy and primal … underlying the sophisticated scent of his expensive aftershave.

"Ooops," he said, "sorry about that. Just getting a pencil." He immediately moved back into his favored perch next to her right ear where he could easily see what she was looking at. The same perch that sent thrills shooting through her body as his goatee tickled her ear.

It took every ounce of strength Pepper had to not turn her chair around, run her fingers through his dark hair, and pull him in for a kiss so she could feel his rough goatee scratch across her mouth. She wondered what it would be like to have that goatee tickle against the most intimate parts of her body as he made love to her.

Part of her wondered if he was doing this deliberately to break down her guard. He had, after all, been dropping not-too-subtle hints ever since his "I am Iron Man" announcement that he wanted more from her, but she was afraid of becoming just another notch on his bedpost. Tony had a dismal track record with women. She steeled her resolve and rolled her desk chair just a little to the left in order to extricate herself from the tantalizing position, turning to face him so he couldn't simply move with her and resume his distracting perch.

"Why don't you pull up a chair, Tony," she asked, smiling sweetly.

"No, that's okay," he said, standing up and straightening out his suit lapels. "I got what I wanted. Thank you, Miss Potts."

"You're welcome, Mr. Stark."


	2. Chapter 2

Story: Experiment  
Author: saichick  
Challenge: Pepperony 100  
Theme: 054 React  
Rating: PG-13

Timeline: between IM1 and IM2

Preview: _Tony decides to see if he can recreate the circumstances that caused Pepper to lean in to kiss him during the dance. By reviewer request … Tony's viewpoint during the story "Tickle." _

Ever since the night of the dance, Tony had been trying to complete the kiss. For most of his life, he'd been an ass, notching one meaningless sexual fling after another onto his bedpost and leaving Pepper to clean up his messes. Now that he wanted something more … something permanent … with _her_ … overcoming her skepticism was a lot more difficult than he expected. Talking had failed. She shot him down cold the day he tried to ask her to be his superhero girlfriend. His hints fell on deaf ears. He was surprised how much her rejection hurt. He was actually beginning to feel a little bit desperate about the whole thing.

But although Tony was not a natural in the serious romance department (not to be confused with the blatant sexual advances department), what he –_was- _was very, very smart. If he could figure out how to invent a new technology to keep his heart running, he reasoned, there must be _some_ way to deduce what had caused Pepper to drop her guard that night. He realized it was pretty lame using an AI as a sounding board to win the heart of the girl you love, but he didn't know who else he trusted enough to ask. Instead, he fell back on what he knew.

Whenever he got within 8 feet of her, she would back away as predictably as two similarly charged electromagnets repelling one another. Desperate for ideas, he finally resorted to reading some horribly written romance novels. Since she wouldn't agree to dance with him again or let him get near, he decided to follow the lead of the romance novels and subtly breach her personal space. If his proximity unnerved her, caused her to react with certain physiological symptoms, it would indicate she reciprocated his feelings. Using the scientific method to come up with dozens of experiments to explore what made Pepper Potts tick, Tony spent the next several weeks testing his theories.

His first success came one day when she was sitting in her office at Stark Industries reviewing some financial statements. She was so engrossed in her work that she failed to notice he had come into the antechamber behind her. Walking as quietly as possible, he leaned in over her shoulder and pretended to look at the documents displayed on her laptop. She didn't notice he was there until he was close enough to feel her soft copper hair tickling against his cheek. That got a response out of her! He expected her to swat at him, but instead she absent-mindedly reached up with one hand to run her palm down his cheek, stopping at his chin and momentarily pausing to fondle the hairs on his chin with an eerie familiarity. Her delicate earlobe rubbed against the other side of his goatee like a cat demanding to be petted.

"Oh," she exclaimed, suddenly pulling away her hand, "Tony, I didn't realize you were there!"

"Mmmm…" he murmured into her ear, deliberating lowering his voice into a tone the romance novels said drove women crazy."Just looking at those figures you pulled up. Didn't mean to startle you."

Pepper paused as though waiting for him to finish looking and go away, but he chose not to. The unexpected intimacy of her caress, the … naturalness … of how she had reached up to touch him before her defense mechanisms had kicked in intrigued him. He wanted to see how far she would let him get away with breaching her personal space before she put him back in his place. Besides … this was the closest Pepper Potts had allowed him to come to her since the night of the dance. He was enjoying himself.

"Don't mind me," he murmured, quietly inhaling the subtle scent of her perfume, "Just keep on doing what you were doing."

"Y-yes, Mr. Stark," she replied.

Tony felt triumphant when he saw a traitorous flush rise to the surface of her exposed neck and cheeks. He was getting the desired reaction out of her and, more importantly, she was tolerating his presence. Pepper pulled up another set of data and continued working.

"Are these figures from last quarter, or this quarter?" he asked huskily, not looking at the computer screen at all. All he could focus on was the telltale pulse subtly throbbing at the junction where the side of her throat met her collarbone and the rise and fall of her breasts, securely hidden from view beneath her suit jacket. Although Pepper wore a neckline designed to hide her cleavage, from this angle he could see the fabric clung like a lover to the top of her shapely mounds, giving him a peek into the tantalizing valley laying sheltered between the exquisite twin mountains. A triumphant thrill shot through his body and made him smile as the increased rise and fall of her chest betrayed the professional tone of her voice. He was getting to her!

"This quarter, I think," Pepper replied, focusing on her screen as though he wasn't millimeters from the side of her face. The slight movement as she spoke caused her copper hair to caress his cheek, the gentle tickling sensation sending electric shocks through his body. He fought the urge to spin her chair around and pull her into his arms. This was the closest she had allowed him to approach since the night of the dance and he didn't dare push his luck too far lest he drive her away completely. He felt like a voyeur, frozen at her side watching her rapidly beating pulse and listening to the slight catch in her breath as she fought to maintain her cool demeanor. Desire flooded through his body as he inhaled her sweet scent and the subtle odor of her shampoo.

"Would you like me to, um, print these out for you?" she asked. He triumphantly noted a slight quiver in her voice just like the novels had said she would. He wasn't the only one affected by their close proximity.

"No, that's okay," he said, trying to prolong the experiment. He enjoyed the feel of her ear against his goatee. He deliberately moved in just a bit closer as he spoke, just enough to intensify the feeling, as his mind searched for a legitimate excuse to remain at her side one sweet moment longer. "No need to kill any forests. Just pull them up and I'll look them over with you."

"Y-yes, Mr. Stark," she stammered. "What data do you want to look at next?"

This was good, he thought. He was definitely unnerving her. With a flash of clarity, he realized he had just turned the dynamics of their relationship upside down. Usually Pepper was the one urging him to attend to boring tasks related to running his company, while he was the one trying to escape. Now he was the taskmaster cracking the whip. So long as he kept her unbalanced, she would hesitate to run. He used this insight to prolong the experiment just a few seconds longer.

"Compare the profit margins on the Intellicrops division between this quarter and the same quarter last year," he quietly requested beside her ear, enjoying the feel of her earlobe taking refuge in his goatee. "I want to see how eliminating the round-up gene from the corn seed has affected profits."

At this point, he no longer needed to pretend to lower his voice to a husky timber. If not for an overwhelming sense of desperation to win her heart combined with pure intellectual curiosity over how his little experiment was going to end, he would have blown things by now by doing something inappropriate. He knew she would slap him if he tried to kiss her, but he was obsessed with how it would feel to rub his chin along her cheek like a tomcat demanding attention from its owner.

Thinking of an excusable way to test that theory, he leaned forward just far enough to hit one of the function buttons on her computer with one hand, using his other for balance so he didn't fall face-first into her lap. Thrills shot through his body at the feel of each individual facial hair bending in its follicle to embrace her alabaster cheek as he moved his chin forward and then back. He could detect the subtle scent of his after-shave lingering on her cheek as he moved back into position. Like a lion marking his territory, Tony had just scent-marked his mate as belonging to him by rubbing his whiskers against her face. If only she would allow him to kiss her!

"Now, can you do the same thing for the medical research division?" he murmured, prolonging his pleasant self-torture by gently rubbing his rough goatee back and forth against her dainty earlobe and relishing the silky feel of her hair caressing his cheek. Thrills shot through his loins as he imagined the subtle movement was his lips pressing down upon her full mouth, moving down along her cheekbone to nibble on her dainty neck and down to her breasts.

Fantasy nearly overcame reason as he leaned forward to kiss her. He caught himself just in time, covering his movement by pretending to grab the pencil she had sitting off to the other side of her computer just as he stopped himself. He felt her jump and covered the unexpected motion by saying, "Ooops, sorry about that. Just getting a pencil."

He chided himself for nearly losing control and ending what had to be the sweetest, most agonizing pleasure he had ever endured at the hands of Miss Potts. If Pepper caught on he was doing this deliberately, he would never get a second chance to get this close to her again. Now that he knew she was not pushing him away because she was immune to his charms, he fully intended to manufacture lots and lots of reasons to get close to her in the future. All he had to do was find subtle excuses that didn't trigger her defense mechanisms, no easy task. He forced himself to move back to his perch and pretend to look over her shoulder at the laptop. With a small thrill of joy, he noticed she was quivering. He wasn't the only person having a hard time keeping his desire in check, he realized.

His heart fell as he realized he had just overplayed his hand. Pepper rolled her desk chair to the left and extricated herself from his dominant position, turning to face him so he couldn't simply move with her and resume his enjoyable perch.

"Why don't you pull up a chair, Tony," she asked, smiling sweetly, the small gleam of triumph in her eyes indicating she knew she had won by pulling away from him.

"No, that's okay," he said, masking his slight grimace of disappointment with his most businesslike expression. He tugged at his suit lapels as he straightened up in order to draw her eye away from the erection now straining against his suit pants. The experiment was a success. At least now he had a clue about how to start breaking down Peppers defenses. Now all he had to do was figure out how to also win her heart. "I got what I wanted. Thank you, Miss Potts."

"You're welcome, Mr. Stark."


End file.
